Neither of the two men vying for the Republican nomination for the 1st Congressional District seat has ever held elected office. Both are in their 20s, and both say they didn’t have political ambitions until recently.

Jennifer Bogdan JenniferBogdan

Neither of the two men vying for the Republican nomination for the 1st Congressional District seat has ever held elected office. Both are in their 20s, and both say they didn’t have political ambitions until recently.

Cormick Lynch and Stan Tran distinguish themselves as political outsiders with unique life experiences. Each also has a very specific reason for getting involved in the race for the seat currently held by U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat.

For 29-year-old Lynch, of Newport, it was the aftermath of a deployment to Iraq. The former Marine was engaged in a year-long deployment as a machine gunner in 2006. Since his return to the United States, he has completed a finance degree and worked for a brief time on Wall Street, but he decided to run for office because of his belief that military service is “overlooked and disrespected” in Washington, D.C.

He speaks about attending the funeral of a Rhode Island National Guard staff sergeant last year and the subsequent emails he sent to the state’s federal delegation asking why they were not in attendance.

“It kind of reminded me of the time I got back from my deployment when I was 21, except this time I was in a position to do something about it,” Lynch said. “And I said, I’m going to run.”

Tran, a 26-year-old medical student at Brown University, is putting his education on hold to run for office because he says he’s seen firsthand the types of problems patients face, from the unaffordable costs of doctor visits to high-priced medications. He said he’s also seen doctors afraid to talk candidly to their patients for fear of lawsuits, a point that he said can be addressed through reform at the federal level.

“There’s a lot of shortsightedness. I think at this point in my life, I have the best view of how the medical system works,” Tran said. “I’m very privileged to see what the issues are, and I’m stepping up to do something about it.”

The contest pits two political newcomers, both with little funding, each with a very different central point to his campaign.

Lynch was born in Cranston and grew up in South Kingstown before enlisting in the Marines at 19. When he returned from Iraq at 21, he worked in East Providence as a firefighter while pursuing his finance degree at the University of Rhode Island.

But when he severed two tendons by dropping a sheet of glass on his leg while doing home repairs, firefighting was out of the question. He went on to enroll full-time at the University of Delaware, where he earned his bachelor’s degree before heading to work as a private equity analyst for J.P. Morgan, in New York City. He has since made campaigning his full-time job.

Tran, the son of Vietnamese immigrants, was born in Santa Clara, Calif. He studied biology and physics at Stanford University and eventually landed a teaching job at Southwestern Academy, a private rural boarding school in Rimrock, Ariz. He describes the institution as a “small school for troubled kids.”

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Tran said he always intended to go on to medical school. He enrolled at Brown University and finished three years of school before taking a leave of absence for his campaign. Because he is attending Brown on scholarship, Tran said he doesn’t have any debt — an unusual distinction for a medical school student — and that has allowed him to take a year off more easily.

“My mom is flabbergasted that I’m doing this,” Tran said. “But I came to medical school to help people. After going through school, I’ve realized that medicine is not the way to help the greatest number of people.”

Not surprisingly, Lynch names foreign policy among his top priorities. He said he thinks the nation is too willing to export its military all over the world.

“I think our military should be for America’s defense rather than the world’s police,” he said.

Pressed at a recent debate on where he stands on the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, he said he would have to further research the situation on the ground. However, he thinks pulling out of a war effort is not akin to winning, and the United States should fight to win its wars.

He also thinks the country needs to make border security a top priority, with an increased presence and better educational efforts. That means ensuring that the United States works harder to combat the perception that children who cross the border will be allowed to stay in the country, an idea perpetuated by smugglers to parents often desperate to get their children to the country.

Tran remains focused on health care issues.

He said he thinks federal intervention is needed to allow patients to buy prescription drugs from foreign manufacturers. That practice is currently disallowed in part because of safety and security concerns. Tran said those concerns are “blown out of proportion” and are “something people say to prevent the change from happening.”

Allowing patients to purchase the drugs from companies outside the United States would increase competition and drive down prices in the U.S. market, he argued. If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspects the drugs prior to purchase, the change can be made safely, he said.

Tran said he also thinks not enough focus is put on helping patients understand their options when they are facing terminal illness. He said he wants to see doctors reimbursed for having “end-of-life conversations” with patients so that they can make informed decisions.

“Good ideas are being put to the wayside, and these are things worth fighting for,” Tran said.